Lignocellulosic biomass is an ideal renewable feedstock for producing a wide variety of monomers and polymers. In an integrated biorefinery, similar to a petroleum refinery, coproduction of monomers for polymer materials along with biofuels can improve profitability. Lignocellulosic biomass can be deconstructed into carbohydrate and lignin fractions and transformed into fuel, chemicals, and material building block substitutes. To do so, upgrading processes that incorporate direct biological, chemo-catalytic, or hybrid technologies are needed. Importantly, the high oxygen content of biomass (˜35-45%) also makes it ideal for targeting oxygen-rich platform molecules such as polyester precursors with high atom efficiency when compared to petroleum to which oxygen must be added.
cis,cis-muconic acid is a promising renewable platform molecule that can be accessed from both sugars and lignin and be readily converted to both terephthalic acid and adipic acid, which can further be used to produce poly(ethylene terephthate) (PET) or Nylon 6,6, respectively. In the case of terephthalic acid, cis,cis-muconic acid is isomerized to trans,trans-muconic acid and subsequently reacted with ethylene and dehydrated, while adipic acid can be produced directly from the hydrogenation of muconic acid. While the use of muconic acid as a precursor to direct replacement monomers is being thoroughly explored, exploitation of its olefinic nature for utilization as a functional replacement in polymers has received less attention to date. As the use of muconic acid without further chemical processing has potential for economic and environmental advantages, there is a substantial incentive to explore utilization of muconic acid.